What Makes You A Hero?
by SingingInTheRaiin
Summary: There's a new villain in town who warns Izuku that she's out for All Might's blood. But her vendetta seems to be more personal than most, and hopefully Izuku will be able to figure out what's going on before anyone else gets hurt. For someone who's supposedly not a fan of All Might, this villain sure does know a lot more about him than the average person does. (one-shot)


Izuku wasn't sure why he ever thought that he could just have a normal day at school. Well, to be fair, the entire school day itself had been pretty normal, or as normal as a day could be when a bunch of kids with powerful quirks were kept in a small space together. But walking home was usually the least interesting part of his day, which is why he wasn't expecting anything in particular to happen.

He had stayed a bit later than his classmates because he'd needed a chance to chat with All Might without the risk of anyone walking in or overhearing them, so everyone else was gone by the time he headed out. He walked out through the front gates, and started heading towards the train station.

Before he'd gone more than a few steps, someone dashed towards him and tackled him to the ground. Was it a villain? Were they daring to attack so close to the school? It's not like villains hadn't tried to attack even knowing there were pro heroes right in the area before, though. He didn't want to use his power without knowing for sure what was going on, especially since he wasn't confident in his ability to control it.

He and his attacker rolled around on the ground a few times until they finally ended with Izuku pinned to the ground, and a girl pressed up against him. She had long, wavy blonde hair that fell down around Izuku's face like some kind of curtain, though there was some dirt and grass in it now thanks to their tustle. She stared at him with big blue eyes. They were literally entirely blue, with no white or any other color showing, but they were like a gradient, starting with lighter blue from the outside corner of her left eye, and slowly shifting to very dark blue on the outside corner of her right eye. She had a very intense look on her face, and Izuku blinked a few times, unsure of what he should do.

Luckily, he didn't have to consider using his power on this stranger, at least not yet, because she rolled off of Izuku and scrambled to her feet, though she didn't offer a hand down to Izuku to help him stand up. "You're All Might's protege, aren't you?"

Izuku's eyes widened, and he quickly shook his head. "N-no. Why would you think that?" Then he laughed nervously.

The girl didn't look to be at all impressed. "You're a lot shorter than I thought you'd be. Look, I don't care about you in any way, and I'm not a threat to you. I just need you to get a message to your precious All Might. Tell him that I'll be waiting outside the school's gates tomorrow at five o'clock."

"Um, I'm sorry, but I don't think he really has time to be meeting with fans-"

The girl let out a derisive snort. "Please don't insult me by calling me a fan of that disgusting bastard. Just tell him that Tsuki will be waiting for him, and he'll come."

Izuku couldn't help wondering who the heck this girl was, to think that she was important enough for All Might to come out and meet her. Especially these days, when he had such a limited amount of time in his hero form. Not that some random girl would know about something like that, of course. "I'll tell him, but I can't guarantee that he'll meet with you."

Tsuki shrugged. "Whether he comes or not is up to him, but I'm pretty sure that he will. He's too much of a hero to resist the opportunity." When Izuku didn't say anything in response to that, mainly because he had absolutely no idea what he could even say, she just sighed. "Just tell him I'll be here. Oh! And don't forget to tell him that I clocked you pretty good."

"But you didn-" Izuku reacted too slowly to the incoming fist as it slammed into his cheek and he stumbled back a few steps. He frowned, which made his cheek sting more. "Why'd-?" Tsuki was already gone. Did she have some kind of teleportation or invisibility quirk?

Either way, Izuku decided that this counted as urgent business, and he didn't want to wait until tomorrow at the risk of somehow forgetting about the incident overnight. And if All Might really did want to meet with Tsuki, he might need the advanced notice to make sure he didn't miss out on any plans.

He rushed back to the school, all the way to the teacher's lounge, where he saw All Might resting on one of the couches in his non-hero form, and Aizawa was sitting across from him. They both stopped talking when he burst into the room. "I'm sorry to interrupt you, but I have something important to tell All Might."

Aizawa shrugged and stood up, stretching his arms up over his head. "I should probably be heading out now anyways," he muttered before slinking away.

There was no one else in the room, and Izuku moved to stand in front of All Might. "When I went to leave, there was a girl standing outside the front gates. She said to tell you that she is going to be waiting there for you tomorrow at five o'clock. She also said to tell you that her name is Tsuki, and that she's the one who punched me…" he trailed off when he noticed the tension that suddenly seemed to fill All Might. "What's wrong? I already told her that you probably wouldn't have time to meet with her, so maybe she won't take it too badly. Especially since she didn't seem to really like you, for some reason."

All Might sighed, and looked even smaller than he normally did in his non-hero form. He reached up to rub at his eyes, and then slumped down lower where he was sitting. "It's nothing for you to worry about, young Midoriya."

Izuku hated feeling like he had no idea what was going on. "So you're actually going to meet with her?"

The pro superhero looked exhausted as he nodded once. "Yes." Then he stood up to look down at Izuku. "And while I understand that you must be feeling curious, I must ask you to promise that you will not follow me to meet her."

That only brought up a million more questions that Izuku wanted to ask, but then he would be disappointing All Might, so instead he just nodded. "I promise." Then he hurried off, wondering just who that Tsuki girl was, and why the mere mention of her name had suddenly made All Might look like he had to attend someone's funeral?

It wasn't until he got home that he realized there were several missed calls on his cellphone, and when he checked, he saw that they were all from Shouto. He cursed himself for not answering, and quickly called back without bothering to check for messages, because he knew Shouto wouldn't have left any.

The other boy answered on the first ring, though his voice was just as calm and collected as it always was. "Izuku. How did your talk with All Might go?"

All Might hadn't said anything about keeping the strange encounter a secret, and besides that, he trusted his boyfriend with basically everything. And he'd feel bad about making up an excuse for why he was- a quick glance at the clock on the wall made him want to shout in frustration- already over an hour late to meet up with Shouto. "I'm sorry I'm so late. If I head out now I'll be there in about half an hour, and I can tell you all about what just happened. I-if you still want to hang out, I mean."

There was only a brief moment of silence before Shouto spoke. "I would never turn down the opportunity to spend time with you."

Izuku let out a sigh of relief, grateful that he hadn't annoyed Shouto too much. He tried to be a reliable and good boyfriend, but he knew that he wasn't anywhere near Shouto's level, and he was always afraid of messing things up. "Thank you so much. I promise I'll get there as soon as possible." Then he hung up, tossed his school bag aside, and hurried back to the door so that he could slip on his shoes and take off.

The train ride was just as long and boring as usual, and as soon as it came to a stop, Izuku dashed out, and ran all the way down to the street to the little cafe he had planned to meet Shouto at. When he ducked inside, he saw his boyfriend sitting quietly at the small table in the corner that they usually occupied when they came here. He was looking at something on his phone, and Izuku hurried over to plop down in the seat across from him.

He didn't want to interrupt whatever it was that Shouto was doing, so he just sat there quietly for a couple of minutes until Shouto finally put his phone down, and then looked up at Izuku. Most people wouldn't be able to read much from Shouto's face, since it was as seemingly emotionless as always, but Izuku had learned how to read his boyfriend fairly well, and he could see that the other boy was quite annoyed. Who could really blame him, after he'd just been forced to sit by himself in a cafe for nearly two hours? "I'm really sorry," he said softly.

For a moment, a look of confusion crossed over Shouto's face, and then he let out a nearly inaudible sigh. "I'm not mad at you," he said assuringly. "My father said he wants me home soon."

In that case, it was very reasonable for Shouto to be upset. "I'm sorry. If I'd gotten here sooner-"

"It's okay. Why don't you tell me about how your talk went? And what happened to your face?"

Izuku sighed, but he could understand that Shouto wanted to distract himself from the fact that he'd have to go home soon. If Izuku had his way, Shouto would never go back home to his father again, but unfortunately, Izuku was still just a kid, and there wasn't really anything he could do. "Our talk went just fine. The weirdness happened when I left. A girl ambushed me just outside the gates-" as soon as he said that, he could see Shouto's eyes sweep over him for any sign of injury besides the small scratch that had been left behind on his cheek. "She asked me to tell All Might that she'd be waiting for him tomorrow outside the school gates. When I told him that, he got all weird, and said that he is going to meet with her."

Shouto reached across the table and carefully brushed his thumb over Izuku's cheek. "She did this?" Izuku nodded, and Shouto let out a foreign sounding growl. "Perhaps I should go meet with her before All Might to let her know how displeased I am with the thought of her hurting you."

Izuku reached up to take Shouto's hand, and gave it a gentle squeeze before lowering it to the table so that their hands were resting on top of each other. "It's alright. It doesn't even hurt anymore, just took me by surprise at first. I'm more interested in figuring out what her connection to All Might is. But he made me promise that I wouldn't go to that meeting."

Shouto hummed under his breath for a moment, and then retracted his hand. "I never made any such promise. When is the meeting?"

For a moment, he was tempted to share that information, but he thought that it might disappoint All Might if Izuku was that willing to look for loopholes in his words, so he just lightly shook her head. "I don't think that that's such a good idea. He clearly didn't want other people to witness whatever it is that he's going to say to that girl, so we should just give him some privacy."

After a few seconds, Shouto nodded. "You're right. I just-" he was cut off by the sound of his phone's ringtone. He closed his eyes for a moment before glancing down at the screen. "I set the alarm so I'd know the latest I could leave here to still make it home on time. I really wish I could stay and talk with you, but…" he trailed off, not having to explain why it would be a very bad idea to rile his father up.

Izuku and Shouto stood up at the same time, and Izuku quickly stepped forward to give his boyfriend a hug. "Stay safe," he murmured. "Will you text me before you go to bed?"

Shouto nodded. "Promise," he said in an equally quiet voice. Then, since they were in public and Shouto had never been very comfortable with public displays of affection, he pressed a quick kiss to the top of Izuku's head before hurrying off.

With Shouto gone, there was no reason for Izuku to stick around, so he left without bothering to order anything. As soon as he stepped outside, someone grabbed his arm and started pulling him down the street. He tried to tug himself free, but his captor was strong. When he looked up at them, he saw wavy blonde hair, and sighed. It wasn't a very common look, and he was pretty sure that somehow, Tsuki had tracked him here.

When he was tugged into an alleyway and then finally released, he was proven right, as the girl turned around to face him. "I want you to know that I wouldn't feel very complete in my existence if I didn't explain to you just how thoroughly I despise you and everything you stand for." She didn't sound angry when she said that, more like she was simply stating facts that everyone should be aware of.

Izuku blinked a few times in confusion. "But you don't even know me," he said softly. "Why would you hate me?" It was disturbing to think that it was so easy for people to just hate him. He already got enough of that from Katsuki, and now he couldn't help wondering if there was just something inherently dislikeable about him.

Tsuki shrugged. "I don't really care about who you are as a person. I don't care about what your favorite food is, or your favorite movie, or your worst fear, or your true love. None of that garbage matters to me. I already know everything about you that I need to know. You've got your head way too high up in the clouds to realize that All Might isn't the greatest person on the planet, and you plan to become a top superhero using the powers that he gave you."

That last part definitely took Izuku by surprise. How had Tsuki known about that? She sounded far too confident for it to be some random guess. Most people wouldn't even consider the possibility of a quirk that could be shared. And if she was just going off the fact that their quirks were similar, then it would've made more sense to assume that they were related, the way that Shouto had.

Clearly, Tsuki could see all the tension that had suddenly risen up in Izuku, and she smirked at him as she leaned back against one of the alley walls. "Don't worry, you haven't disappointed your mentor. I knew all about One for All a long time before you did. My entire life, basically. And I always thought-" she cut herself off in the middle of her sentence, and shook her head. "It doesn't matter. The point is that there will never be anything in the entire universe that I will hate more than All Might himself, but you come in a pretty close second."

A long moment of silence stretched between them before Izuku asked what felt like it should be an obvious question. "If you hate me so much, why did you just drag me here? Was it just to tell me that you hate me?"

Tsuki hesitated for a moment, then shook her head. "No. Not that that isn't something I would do, but in this case, that's not all I wanted to tell you. I also thought I'd give you a bit of a head's up. I've always been a strong believer in fair play, even if certain other people don't feel the same. I'm just warning you that a very dangerous villain is going to be popping up around here soon, and you'd best be on your guard if you don't want to be the first casualty."

"Who is it? How do you know that they're coming? What can they do? Why would they come after me? How-"

Tsuki let out a rough laugh, and it sounded like she wasn't used to making such a noise. "Geez, kid, relax. I'm not going to answer any of your questions about the villain. I'm just letting you know that they're coming. Now you know, and I've done my good deed of the day, and we can both just wander off on our merry ways and completely forget about each other."

Izuku narrowed his eyes. "How old are you, anyways? You don't look like you're in any position to be calling me a kid."

"I'm sixteen, which makes me two years older than you, which makes me your elder, which makes you a kid in comparison. Just suck it up and accept the fact that you're just a kid. And even if we weren't talking about our literal ages, I'd still see you as a kid. You still cling to an innocent naivete like a child. I was forced to see the world for what it really is a long time ago." She sighed. "So you know that I hate you, and you know that a villain is coming after you. Enjoy the rest of your day."

She turned to go, and even though Izuku felt like he was in somewhat of a daze, he was aware enough to know that he still needed more answers from her. "Wait!" He reached out to grab her arm. "Tell me what your connection is to All Might."

For a moment, Izuku actually thought that she might cooperate. But instead, Tsuki yanked her arm free, and crossed both of her arms over her chest. "Why would I tell you something like that? That information has absolutely nothing to do with fair play."

Izuku wasn't sure what he could say to her that would be convincing enough, but he had to say something. "Like you said, I'm All Might's successor. Anything that's important to him is important to me too." He stared up at Tsuki with big, pleading eyes, hoping that it would be enough to get at least some sympathy from her. He was pretty sure she was just going to laugh at him, but it was worth a shot.

Apparently nothing about Tsuki was meant to be predictable, though. Instead of looking amused or annoyed, she just looked tired, and maybe even a little bit sad. "There's a flaw in your logic. I don't have any connection to All Might, nor would I ever want to. My business is with the man behind the mask. Not the so-called superhero, but just the man himself. I doubt that even you know who he truly is, even if you have seen him in his more pathetic form. Now stop bothering me with stupid questions. I have other matters to attend to that are a lot more important than some kid's curiosity." She waggled her fingers at him in some imitation of a goodbye wave, and then hurried away, moving just slowly enough that no one out on the sidewalk would give her odd looks for it.

Now Izuku really wished that he hadn't made that promise to All Might, because he was very curious to find out more about Tsuki, and what she knew of All Might. Or what she knew of the 'man behind the mask', as she'd said. But he definitely wasn't going to learn anything else today, so have heaved out a soft sigh of defeat and then headed back home.

,,,

The next day whirled by pretty quickly, and soon enough, Izuku found himself in the cafeteria, sitting next to Shouto and across from Iida and Uraraka. They made small talk as they ate their lunches, and everything was perfectly normal. But Izuku was starting to learn that there was no such thing as a perfectly normal day for Yuuei students.

As everyone was eating, Aizawa made his way over to the table Izuku was sitting at, and he looked down at Izuku tiredly. "Could you please come with me?"

Since he mostly finished with his meal, he didn't see any problem with leaving, but it was strange to be asked to accompany a teacher without being given any reason for why. "I'll talk to you later," he told Shouto softly while his other friends stared curiously. Shouto nodded once, and then Izuku hurried after Aizawa, who'd already started walking out of the cafeteria. Once they were out in the hallway, where everything was much quieter, Izuku couldn't contain his own curiosity. "What's going on? Am I in trouble?"

Aizawa sighed, and shook his head. "You're not in trouble, but it's probably easier to just wait a minute so that more can be explained to you." They ended up going to the teachers' lounge, and the only other person in there was All Might, in his non-hero form. "The kid's here," Aizawa helpfully informed his coworker.

Izuku sat down on the opposite couch from All Might, while Aizawa slumped down on the cushion next to the blonde hero. Izuku looked back and forth between the two teachers, and he couldn't keep the confusion off of his face. "What needs to be explained to me? What's going on?"

The two older men exchanged a glance that seemed to hold an entire silent conversation within it before All Might looked back at Izuku and spoke. "I told Aizawa of the message you gave me yesterday, and he grew concerned about the different possibilities. It would be bad for me to walk into any meeting unprepared." He hesitated for a moment before reaching out to the small coffee table, where there was a blank square. He picked it up and turned it around so Izuku could see that it was actually a photograph. It looked oldish and worn away, and there was clearly a tear down one side. But what really caught his attention was the subject of the photo. A young girl, probably around five or six years old, with long, wavy blonde hair, and very unique blue eyes that Izuku had only ever seen on one person. Before he could ask anything else, All Might held the picture out a bit closer to Izuku. "I know that this is an old picture, but did the girl you talked to resemble this image?"

Izuku nodded. "Those eyes are unmistakable. Where did you get that picture from?"

He couldn't remember the last time he'd seen All Might look so defeated, especially considering the fact that there was no enemy in front of them, at least that Izuku was able to see. He glanced at Aizawa to speak softly, but not so quietly that Izuku wasn't able to hear him as well. "So I was right, it really is Tsuki."

Aizawa shrugged lazily, but it was obvious from the look on his face that he was actually feeling concerned. "Or someone who's good at appearing to be someone they're not. You can never be too careful."

Then All Might turned back to Izuku. "Young Midoriya, you are very bright, and I'm sure you noticed that I have not spoken much of my past. It is because I have a rather unfortunate history. I don't want for people to stop seeing me as the number one hero, and I'm afraid that if my past was made public, not even including the weakness caused by my injury all those years ago, then people would no longer look at me as a hero." That definitely sounded like there was more meant to be said, but All Might just leaned back in his seat, staring down at the picture of a much younger Tsuki.

When almost a minute passed in silence, Aizawa rolled his eyes, but began speaking. "What I am about to tell you is something that only a handful of people know. That girl you met, Tsuki, has a very dangerous quirk. Even after she built up a body count, her existence was kept under wraps to avoid panicking the public."

A body count? Izuku couldn't help gulping. Sure, Tsuki had seemed intense and a little too aggressive, but it hadn't even occurred to him to think of her as a murderer. What if he'd encountered other killers before too, but simply hadn't been aware of it because they hadn't 'looked like killers'?

Aizawa cleared his throat to interrupt Izuku's mumbling. "Tsuki left this city five years ago, when she was only eleven. Of the few people who knew of her existence, most assumed that she would not be able to survive out in the world on her own. And even the few who believed that she would make it, we didn't think she'd ever return here. She's already used you to pass along her message, so you're probably safe, but stay on your guard all the same. And stay away from her at all costs, or a punch to the face will be the least of your worries."

Izuku hadn't missed the teacher's use of the word 'we'. Somehow, he and All Might knew this girl, who was apparently a dangerous killer, and they'd thought she was out of their city for good. But right now, he had something more important to share. "Actually, she's already approached me a second time."

Both men immediately leaned forward in their seats, staring intently at Izuku. "Are you alright? Were you injured in any way?" All Might asked in a voice heavy with concern.

Izuku shook his head. "She didn't hurt me. She just said she wanted me to know that she-" he shot an apologetic glance to his mentor. "-hates you more than anything, and that apparently I'm second place for most hated because of your-" he glanced at Aizawa with uncertainty before clearing his throat. "And she said that she believes in 'fair play' so she warned me that a…" he trailed off as he was hit with a sudden realization. When she'd warned him that a dangerou villain would be coming, she was probably talking about herself, wasn't she? But then that made the other part of her threat stranger. "And she said she was going to tell the media about All Might's secret." He hoped the look on his face would be enough to get across the fact that he was referring to more than just the blonde man's skeletal form.

After a few seconds passed, All Might frowned. "You can speak everything on your mind, young Midoriya." He shot another quick glance to his fellow teacher, who gave a very subtle nod. "Aizawa already knows all about One for All."

The look of pure shock on Izuku's face was not faked in any way. He'd thought that One for All was a huge secret and now it turned out that his homeroom teacher had been in on it the whole time? He wondered who else knew about the truth of All Might and Izuku's quirk. For some reason, Aizawa seemed almost amused by the look on Izuku's face. "I know about it because he and I are very close friends," he said with an odd emphasis on certain words. When Izuku just blinked a few times, he sighed. "The way you and Todoroki are very close friends?"

Izuku's face flushed bright red at the thought of his teachers being so aware of his love life, but then he caught onto the even more important part about that, which was that his teachers had a love life with each other! Now that he thought about it, the way All Might had picked up Aizawa back during the USJ incident had been rather more intimate looking than strictly necessary. Though he still had a slight problem, it wasn't with the fact that the teachers were dating. "But I never told Shouto about One for All."

Aizawa shrugged. "You're still in high school, and you have your entire lives ahead of you. It is quite possible, and in fact rather likely, that you'll end up breaking up and finding new love interests."

It seemed impossible to imagine that he'd ever break up with Shouto, but he could also understand that many high school relationships were not very meaningful or lasting. All Might nudged Aizawa in the leg, though, which meant he didn't appreciate the bluntness either. "When you're with someone who you truly love and trust, then by all means, feel free to share the secret of One for All with them. But don't feel like you have to rush into such a decision. In the meantime, you have Aizawa and I to talk to about it whenever you need to."

"Oh! I almost forget to say that Tsuki knew about One for All! She said that she would tell the media about it so that everyone would know and villains would come after me. How does she know about it?"

Aizawa started to say, "Perhaps that should be a discussion for another time-" but then All Might cut in.

He took in a deep breath, then slowly let it out. "A very very long time ago, I had considered the idea of choosing Tsuki to be my successor. She had all the qualities I was looking for- bravery, compassion, the willingness to help others regardless of the cost. She hadn't manifested a quirk yet, but her doctor was confident that she would eventually because of the fact that she only had a single joint in her pinkie toe, and because they knew her father had a powerful quirk."

"So what happened to change that?" He wasn't sure how anyone could go from potentially being All Might's successor to being a villainous murderer.

All Might looked wistfully at the picture he was still holding. "Like you, she threw herself into danger to save someone else, without thinking that she had any kind of quirk to protect her. But then when she was badly injured, she lost control of the quirk she hadn't even known about, and…"

He turned to look at Aizawa pleadingly, and the other man nodded once in agreement to finish the story. "Thirty-two innocent people died alongside the villains."

This whole story was turning out to be a wild ride, but Izuku knew that neither of these men had any reason to lie to him about something so crazy. "So it was an accident?" he breathed out. All Might responded with a jerky nod. "How did this never make the news?" He knew that he would've remembered something like that happening in the city. And he also knew that even if it was an accident, the police would never be able to just turn a blind eye to the loss of so many lives, even if it was at the hands of a child who had only been trying to save people.

Aizawa had a small scowl on his face. "We already told you that if the public knew about her, it would cause a panic. Of course a power like that would seem frightening, but that's not what the panic would really be about. Her father with the powerful quirk is a pro hero. If everyone knew of such a direct connection between a hero and a villain, the hero would lose their entire reputation."  
Izuku sucked in a sharp breath at the thought of a hero having a child who killed so many people. And he still had so many questions. What was her quirk? Who was her father? Was her mother a hero as well? Why did it take her so long to discover her quirk? Why hadn't the police done a better job of stopping her from getting away? But he had an even bigger question than all of those. "If she's really so dangerous and villainous then why are you going to meet with her?"

All Might continued staring down at the picture in his hands when he spoke. "Being a hero isn't only about saving people from falling buildings or villain attacks. It's also about taking responsibility for your actions, and helping others to do the same. Tsuki wasn't- isn't- evil. I can't believe that. What she did was wrong, but it wasn't something she willfully chose to do." He tossed the photo back onto the coffee table, Tsuki's young and innocent face grinning up at them. "Some people say you're a hero if you can save just one person, but the truth is, knowing that I couldn't save her makes me feel like the opposite of a hero."

And then the bell rang, taking away Izuku's opportunity to ask anymore questions, at least for the moment. He got up to leave, though hesitated to turn back and talk to All Might. "Just be careful when you go to meet her." Then he hurried in the direction of the locker room to change and get ready for hero training.

He paused when Aizawa softly called out to him. "Midoriya, Tsuki is dangerous, and I don't trust All Might to not do anything foolish in her presence. I'm aware of the promise he asked you to make, but I value his life more than his privacy." He stared pointedly at Izuku.

Izuku frowned. "Are you giving me permission to spy on him?"

Aizawa shrugged. "I would never do such a thing." Then he swept past Midoriya to get to wherever it was that he needed to be.

When he got to the locker room, Izuku quickly found Shouto, who had already finished changing and was apparently just waiting for Izuku. "I think I just got some weird form of permission from Aizawa to go to All Might's meeting. It's at five, outside the front gates of the school. Will you come with me?" It's not like he was afraid to go by himself, but he felt bad for not spending enough time with Shouto lately, and even if it wasn't the ideal date, it was still better than nothing, right?

Shouto must've agreed with the thought that it was better than nothing, because he nodded his head. "Of course."

Izuku grinned brightly. "Great! Oh, but there's so much that I have to tell you about why Aizawa wanted to see me. I'll tell you after school, since we'll have a couple hours until our stake out."

After looking around to make sure that all of the other boys had already left the locker room, Izuku and Shouto shared a brief kiss, and then Izuku hurried to finish changing so that he and his boyfriend could head outside to where the rest of the class was waiting.

,,,

Of course, Izuku hadn't been able to explain everything to Shouto, since he didn't think he was ready to talk about One for All, or the relationship between their teachers, or anything like that. But he talked about the rest, about Tsuki and how she was dangerous and had killed over thirty people. Shouto didn't look particularly shocked or surprised, but then again, he usually hid his emotions since that's what had been trained into him his entire childhood.

"But you didn't figure out what her quirk is?" Shouto asked softly. Izuku shook his head, and he recognized the thoughtful look on Shouto's face as the one he always got when he thought of something particularly interesting. "So her father is a powerful hero, and she wanted to meet with All Might specifically, and he had a photo of her as a child?"

Izuku gasped as he realized what his boyfriend was trying to get at. "Are you saying that Tsuki is All Might's… daughter?" To think of the top hero having a child that nobody knew about seemed very strange indeed. But then that would explain why All Might had wanted her as a successor even when she was so young. She had said that she'd known about One for All basically her entire life. And now that he thought about it, there were a few similarities in appearance between All Might and Tsuki. But even with all of that, it was still just such a bizarre thought.

He wanted to chat more, but then he saw All Might walking outside of the school gates in his hero form. A quick glance at his phone screen showed that it was five minutes before five o'clock, and there wasn't any sign of police officers or other heroes to apprehend Tsuki, which meant All Might really thought he could just talk to her. Izuku reached out to take one of Shouto's hands to squeeze for comfort as he waited to see what would happen.

At exactly five o'clock, there was a slight rustling from above, and then Tsuki dropped down from where she'd been perched in a tree. Izuku wondered how long she'd been waiting up there.

When she saw All Might, Tsuki's face contorted into a strange mixture of irritation and sadness. "So you do have enough courage to face me. I honestly wasn't sure whether you'd show up or not." She put her hands on her hips, and despite how much smaller she was than All Might, simply because in hero form he was huge, she had a rather intimidating look on her face. "Well, you don't look like you're seeing a ghost, anyways, so I guess you didn't presume me dead like everyone else did? Though I'm sure you would prefer it that way."

All Might looked horrified at the thought. "Of course I wouldn't want you to be dead! Every moment since you left has been spent with me wishing you were safe and well. But I didn't think I'd ever see you again. I thought you'd be smart enough to stay far away from here."

Tsuki shrugged. "I got bored, so I thought I'd come back here to mix things up a little bit. Cause a bit of mayhem and all that. It's what villains are supposed to do, right?"

All Might flinched back like he'd just been slapped. "It doesn't have to be this way," he practically whispered. "You're not a bad person- you don't have to be the villain."

"That's rich coming from you. You're the one who told me that I would never be a hero."

Izuku couldn't help the instinctive wave of sympathy that flowed through him. When All Might had told him that he couldn't be a hero, it had crushed his heart and left him feeling completely hopeless. Where might he be now if the hero had never changed his mind? And if All Might really was her father, then it must've been much worse for her to hear that than it had been for Izuku.

All Might reached out like he wanted to take one of Tsuki's hands, but she slapped it away, and took a step back. She slowly looked him over, and then frowned. "You're not nearly as badly off as I was expecting. I'd heard that you were badly injured just after I left. I assumed you let yourself get too distracted by me, and you got hit. But you look perfectly fine to me."

Izuku nodded to himself, proud of the way that All Might was able to appear the same as always despite what he'd been through. So he was surprised when a moment later, All Might was in his non-hero form, basically swimming in the clothes that were too large on him. "This is what I look like most of the time now."

For the first time since he'd met her the day before, Izuku got to see Tsuki look genuinely shocked. "What the hell? Who did this to you?" Then she shook her head. "Nevermind, I don't want to know. It's not like I care." Her voice wavered too much for her to sound like she was telling the truth about that, though. "I'm assuming that you're much weaker like this. Does that mean we have to postpone our epic reunion battle, Yagi?"

Yagi? Izuku looked at his boyfriend, but Shouto just shrugged to say that he'd never heard that before either.

"I don't want to have to ever fight you. No matter what you've done, and what mistakes you may have made, you're always going to be my-"

"You're nothing to me!" Tsuki snapped. "You're so stupid if you don't understand why it's so easy for me to hate you more than anything else in this world. All I ever wanted was to be a hero, and to make you proud, but I learned the hard way that neither of those things were ever possible, so there was never any point in me trying so hard! I hate you!"

Without any warning, Izuku let go of Shouto's hand, and sprang out of their hiding spot. "Tsuki!" It felt strange to call someone by their given name after knowing them for such a short amount of time, but he didn't know her family name, so it's not like he had many other options. All Might gave Izuku a disappointed look, but didn't say anything to him.

Tsuki turned to look at Izuku. "I had the feeling that you'd show up here. You're a pretty stubborn kid, after all. What do you want?"

Izuku took a few steps closer to the girl. "Look, I understand how you feel right now. You're not the only one that All Might once let down. He told me that I couldn't be a hero without a quirk. But it's not because he was trying to be cruel. It's because he was afraid that I would be hurt if I tried to throw myself into the world of heroes and villains without any way of protecting myself. He was just trying to look out for me, even if he went about it the wrong way."

Tsuki scowled. "You don't understand anything, kid. We all thought I could very well turn out to be quirkless too, but he always encouraged me to want to become a hero. He promised to give me his power so that I would have the ability to save people, which is all I'd wanted to do. But then it turned out that I did have a quirk, and a lot of people died without me meaning for them to. That's when he told me that I could never be a hero. Because a hero would never hurt so many people, regardless of whether it was an accident or not. So screw both of you, okay? I'm actually glad you're here, because it means that I can get rid of you and the old man in one go!"

She had to jump aside when a large wave of ice suddenly crested towards her. Clearly Shouto wasn't okay with people threatening Izuku, who still didn't really have complete control of his quirk. But Tsuki had really fast reflexes, if the way she dove out of the way in time was anything to go by. She looked down at the ground where the ice had almost clung to her ankles and trapped her, and then looked over to where Shouto had jumped out to stand next to Izuku. "So this is the portion of the evening where we demonstrate our quirks? Fine by me!"

All Might quickly shifted back into his hero form, and yeah, that was going to be something else he'd have to explain to Shouto later. "Tsuki, stand down! You as well, Todoroki!" He didn't sound angry, though. He sounded worried. What was Tsuki's quirk that it could have even the number one hero sounding so worried about it? Izuku didn't think that there was anyone out there who could truly be any kind of challenge to All Might.

Tsuki just dodged out of the way of more incoming ice, since apparently Shouto wasn't in a listening mood, which meant that Tsuki wasn't going to listen either. She just grinned and held her hands out in Shouto's direction. Izuku instinctively flinched as he waited for some devastating power to be rained down upon his boyfriend.

When nothing happened, he furrowed his eyebrows in confusion, and looked over at Shouto, who'd stopped attacking. "Are you-?" Suddenly Izuku was the one who had to dodge out of the way, but it wasn't ice or fire being thrown at him. Instead, it was Shouto flinging his entire body in Izuku's direction.

Izuku reached out to catch his boyfriend so that they wouldn't crash together, but Shouto quickly broke free from Izuku's loose grip, and began attacking with sloppy, clumsy movements that weren't anything like his usual fighting style. All Might rushed over to Tsuki, who easily ducked and weaved her way between all of his attempts to grab her. "Tsuki! Stop this at once! Let him go!"

It's not like Izuku thought his boyfriend had just decided to start attacking him on his own, but the confirmation was still nice anyways. He didn't want to do anything that would hurt Shouto, but overall, that didn't seem to be much of a problem. The taller boy wasn't fighting with any of his usual skill or style, and was more of an irritating distraction than anything. Was this a brainwashing quirk like Hitoshi's? But his eyes still looked normal, and he hadn't said anything to Tsuki, and she hadn't told him to do anything.

While he was busy trying to keep a balance between holding Shouto off without actually harming him, he wasn't paying enough attention to his surroundings to realize that there was someone else nearby. He heard a loud screech, and then everything seemed to move in slow motion.

Izuku whirled around just in time to see Tsuki jump right behind him, though she was facing away from him, and a moment later, there was a large piece of steel going straight through her chest. Izuku quickly caught her before she hit the ground, and then he heard a soft thud behind him. He glanced back to see that Shouto had crumpled to the ground like a puppet whose strings had been cut, though he blinked a slowly got back up to his feet a moment later.

Meanwhile, All Might was rushing in the direction of whoever had attacked Tsuki. There was the sound of fighting just out of sight, but even after seeing him worried about Tsuki's quirk, Izuku was confident that All Might would be able to defeat whoever was out there. He was proven right when the hero returned a few minutes later, but he didn't say anything about who'd been there, he just rushed over and dropped to his knees next to the fallen girl. "Tsuki!" He sounded scared, but Izuku knew that right now, he was more scared for the girl than he was of her.

"Get away from me," she got out through bared teeth, but there wasn't much force behind the words, and she looked pale and weak, and there was a lot of blood.

Izuku blinked a few times. "You just saved my life. Why would you do that? I thought you hated me?"

Shouto knelt down next to Izuku as well, and he nodded towards the steel beam. "You can take that out, right All Might?" The hero nodded. "As soon as you do, I'll put a layer of ice over the injuries to keep her from bleeding out so that you have more time to get her to the hospital or to Recovery Girl."

All Might was quick to remove the beam, even though it made Tsuki let out a loud, pained wail, and then Shouto quickly covered the gaping wounds with ice like he'd said he would. Tsuki narrowed her eyes at him, but then turned her attention to Izuku, even though it meant craning her neck at an awkward angle. "Don't go thinking that this means anything special. I could kill all three of you- all four of you- right now if I wanted to. But there wouldn't be any fun in that. I don't want you to die without suffering first."

"You don't sound like you really mean that," Izuku said as gently as he could. "And what do you mean by four of us?"

Tsuki didn't have to answer, because Aizawa seemed to practically materialize out of nowhere. "She's probably talking about me. I would've been here sooner, but I was trying to chase down a minor villain who was very close to trespassing on school grounds. Unfortunately I was unable to catch up to him in time. Come on, we need to get her to help soon, before she gets frostbite or dies from shock. We can talk more later." All Might very carefully scooped Tsuki up, doing his best not to jostle her injuries in any way. Before he could start walking towards the gates, though, Aizawa put one hand out in a motion for him to stop. Then he looked at Tsuki, but didn't activate his power immediately. "Even if it's after hours, and there aren't many students around at the moment, I cannot abide by you entering the school grounds if there's even the slightest possibility that you will cause harm to anyone inside. You must swear to not attempt anything against anyone within the school, whether it's with your quirk or otherwise."

He had a stern look on his face, much different than his usual lax expression, but Tsuki didn't seem at all phased by it. Maybe it's because she was already woozy from pain and blood loss, or maybe it's just because she was fearless. Not that it really mattered either way. She groaned once, and then offered a stilted nod. "I promise, Dad," she mumbled. She seemed too out of it to really be aware of what she was saying.

Despite how quiet and slurred her words were, there was no mistaking what she'd just said, and Izuku and Shouto exchanged a brief, wide-eyed look. Aizawa was her dad who was a superhero? That was something neither of them had expected. But Aizawa was right about the fact that they could talk more once they were sure that Tsuki was stable and unlikely to die. The teacher sighed, and then nodded as well. "Be sure that you keep your promise this time. I have to bring that villain to the police. The rest of you can bring the girl inside." Then he went and disappeared as quickly as he'd arrived.

Having permission to bring her in, All Might rushed through the gates, which didn't shut him out because he had been smart enough to think ahead and bring a guest pass for Tsuki, which he slipped over her drooping head. He must've been hoping that she would surrender to him. Izuku grabbed one of Shouto's hands, and pulled him back inside the gates as well, and they rushed to follow All Might's booming footsteps as he ran to the infirmary.

Once she'd been set down on a bed, Recovery Girl had ushered the three males out of the room, and said she'd call for them once Tsuki was stable. They all stood around in the hallway, feeling awkward, before All Might switched back to his non-hero form and lead the way to the teachers' lounge. It wasn't until they sat down in there that Izuku realized that there was blood on all three of them.

There was a long stretch of silence before All Might finally sat down across from the boys, and let out a heavy sigh. "I'm sure you have many questions. But I don't-"

Even though he normally wouldn't do such a thing to his idol, Izuku couldn't stop himself from interrupting the man. "I'm sorry that I broke my promise to you but Aizawa said that I could!" He didn't mean to throw his homeroom teacher under the bus, but he didn't want All Might to hate him.

All Might sighed again. "I'll talk with him later." He sounded unbearably tired, and he looked so worn down that Izuku couldn't help feeling sorry for him.

Shouto ended up being the next one to speak, sounding as calm as always. "Was that girl really Aizawa's daughter? And what exactly was her quirk? I've never felt anything like that before." Izuku arched one eyebrow curiously, and Shouto elaborated. "I've heard others describe what it's like to be brain washed by Hitoshi, but it wasn't like that. I didn't feel trapped in my own body. Instead, it felt like I was yanked out of my body, and forced to just hover around while it moved without my consent."

"We never got the chance to think up a proper name for her quirk, since we learned about it the same day she did, and that was also the same day that she left. Aizawa suggested we call it Soul Stealing. But from what I understand of it, she can actually pull a person's soul out of their body, and then control their body to do whatever she asks of it. But she can only make the body do anything she herself would be capable of doing, and if the soul is outside of the body for too long, then it can cause irreparable harm. Those first thirty-two victims of hers were just innocent civilians who happened to be in the area, and she unintentionally removed all of their souls. When she went unconscious from the pain and blood loss, she was unable to return their souls, and all of them perished."

Izuku shivered at the thought that that could've happened to Shouto if Tsuki hadn't been strong enough to retain consciousness after being hit. He reached out to take one of Shouto's hands, and his boyfriend seemed to understand the sudden need to feel him, because he scooted a bit closer so that their thighs were brushed up against each other.

All Might didn't seem bothered by their show of affection, and just continued talking. "You asked if Tsuki is really Aizawa's daughter. Technically, she is. They don't share blood, but he legally adopted her right after she was born. I am Tsuki's biological father. She was born from a surrogate who wished to have no part in her child's life, and has not been heard from in sixteen years. Aizawa and I raised her entirely. We were both devastated when we learned what she is capable of."

Izuku leaned forward in his seat to look at All Might earnestly. "But it isn't fair to blame her for that when she didn't mean to do it! Instead of calling her a villain and pushing her away, you should've taught her to control it so that an incident like that wouldn't happen again!"

"Young Midoriya, I know that you do not consider the situation fair, but you have to understand that we were placed in a difficult position. No hero agency would ever accept someone with such a dark past. The police only agreed to keep it from the public because they didn't want my reputation as the Symbol of Peace to be tainted by anything. They claimed that it was a gas leak that had killed those people. I told Tsuki that she could not be a hero, because that is the truth. Perhaps if she'd learned about her quirk sooner, and had learned to control it, then it would be a different story, but that isn't the case. We wanted to figure out a way to fix things, and make it so that she wouldn't be arrested, but she ran before we got the chance. She willingly hurt three people, that we know of, in her escape. I wanted things to be different for her, but she chose her current path."

Izuku pursed his lips together as he considered that. "But she just risked her life to save me, and she gave Shouto back when she got hurt. Those aren't the actions of a villain."

There was a polite knock on the lounge door to give them warning, and then Recovery Girl poked her head in. "The girl's awake if you want to talk to her. I wasn't able to heal her completely tonight, but she's out of danger." As All Might got up to leave the room, with Izuku and Shouto right behind him, Recovery Girl smacked All Might none too gently in the stomach. "Go easy on her. I don't need you riling up my patients."

Then all of them trooped back to the infirmary, where they found Tsuki sitting propped up in one of the beds. She looked exhausted, but not as pale and sick as before. She gave her visitors a token scowl, but her heart didn't really seem to be in it. "What do you want from me?"

All Might sat down in the seat next to her bed, while the two boys moved to stand on her other side. "Why did you rescue young Midoriya after claiming you were after his life in addition to mine?"

Tsuki shrugged, then winced at the way the movement tugged on her healing wounds. "I don't know. Maybe I didn't want to lose the chance to kill him myself."

"At the risk of your own life?"

Tsuki sighed. "I don't know, okay? It just felt like my feet started moving on my own before I could even think about it, and then I was there. And I wasn't trying to be so self-sacrificing. I had a couple of seconds to think, and I knew that if I pushed him out of the way, it would leave burned face there dead in his place. Don't think too hard about it, because I wouldn't want you to hurt your very small brain."

Shouto clenched his hands into fists at being called 'burned face', but didn't say anything. Izuku stepped a little closer to Tsuki's bed. "What I said before is true. I was told plenty of times growing up that I could never be a hero, including by All Might himself. I was ready to give up on all my dreams, even though all I'd ever wanted to be is a hero. All you ever wanted was to be a hero too, right? That's what you said before. I know how much it hurts to be told that you can't do it, but you can't just give up. Maybe you won't get to be a pro hero, but that doesn't mean you can't be a hero all the same."

Tsuki frowned. "Thanks for the pep talk loser, but I'm satisfied with being a villain."

"No you're not!" Izuku hurried to say. She gave him a bemused look, so he kept talking. "All Might said that when you escaped, you hurt a few people. By then you already knew that you could've easily killed them, but you didn't. You just hurt them, which still wasn't right, but you were scared and just trying to get away from a situation that you didn't really understand, so I can't really blame you for that. And I haven't heard of any strange gas leaks in other cities where innocent people have suddenly just dropped dead, which means that you haven't just been going around killing people the past five years. What have you been doing?"

"What difference does it make? I promise you that I was breaking the law, whatever it is that you think I was up to."

All Might was staring at Izuku curiously, but the boy kept all of his attention focused on Tsuki. "I have some idea. You were probably being a hero, weren't you? You couldn't be a pro hero, but you could've easily been a vigilante. All you'd have to do is use your power to walk villains and criminals right into the police stations with no one ever knowing you were there. It's technically illegal to use your quirk like that without being licensed, but you were still doing good stuff. You can still be a hero. But not if you attack All Might, or any other hero."

Tsuki scoffed, but didn't actually retort to that. All Might's eyes widened in some surprise. "So what he just said is true? You were acting as a vigilante?" She hesitated for a moment before nodding and letting out an abrupt grunt in confirmation. All Might reached out warily, but when Tsuki didn't pull away, he gently took one of her hands in his own. "Perhaps this will come across as an odd question, but why weren't you attempting to attack or talk with Aizawa at all?"

"There was no point," she muttered. "I always knew that he believed in me, even when you didn't. He's the one who helped me escape. Gave me some money and advice, and we've exchanged a few letters, though it was more difficult for him because I couldn't reveal my location if I wanted him to have plausible deniability." From the look on All Might's face, there was a lot of stuff that he needed to discuss with Aizawa. But he seemed to understand that now wasn't the right time to get angry, because he took in a deep breath, and then lightly squeezed Tsuki's hand. She looked away from him to stare at the wall across from her bed. "He didn't know that I planned on coming back here, but I had to. After I saw Izuku Midoriya in action during the sports festival, I knew that you'd chosen him, and it hurt. I was pissed that you chose someone else to be your successor, even though I knew deep down from the moment I ran that it was never going to be me."

All Might bowed his head to stare down at his lap. "I'm sorry. I didn't want to just move on from you, but I had to. I've always known you to be strong enough to survive, but I still grieved as though I'd seen your corpse. And I almost had. It was lucky that there were so many healing quirks at the hospital you were brought to back then. The doctors all said that it was a miracle, and a sign of a strong will, that you were able to make it through. And then before I even got the chance to see you truly healthy again, you were already gone. The doctors all said you shouldn't have even been able to walk yet, but you clearly proved them wrong."

Tsuki shrugged. "Not really. Like I said, Dad helped me to get out. He knocked the police guards unconscious, and then pushed me out of there in a wheelchair. Nobody thought to question it, since I was just a little kid so most of the nurses must've assumed the police were there for my protection more than anything. But don't get mad at him. I begged him to help me. I was terrified to think that I'd be thrown into jail when I was only eleven years old, and I was plagued by nightmares of my own injury, and of all those bodies. I guess I wasn't really thinking clearly. Maybe I'm still not." She slowly turned to look at All Might, bracing herself like she was afraid of what she might find. "Please tell me the truth. Do you think that I could ever be a hero?"

The moment that All Might took to think was already too long, so without giving himself a chance to second-guess, Izuku spoke up. "Of course you can be a hero! It's in your blood, your heart, and your soul. You stopped countless villains without getting any recognition or glory for it, and you saved my life today. Maybe I could've done without all the creepy threats, though I get why you were so upset with me. And I know that it must be hard to deal with your past. But yes, you can be a hero."

Tsuki's brilliant blue eyes widened, and then to everyone's surprise, a few tears started dripping down her cheeks. "That's all I wanted," she whispered. "I just wanted to be a hero."

All Might had an uncertain look on his face, but before he could say anything discouraging, Aizawa walked into the room. He made his way over to the crowded bed space at a casual speed, like he hadn't been at all worried about his daughter. Once he was standing right above her, she suddenly grabbed him by the scarf and yanked him down so that she could pull him into a proper hug. He easily returned the gesture. "I have missed you. But I don't understand why you would risk everything to come back here."

"I was upset, and I needed someone to blame, someone to take my anger out on. That was wrong of me, though."

Once the two separated from their hug, All Might took Aizawa's hand and nodded towards the hallway. "I need to speak with you in private."

Tsuki grimaced. "Sorry, I kinda ratted you out to the old man."

Aizawa shrugged, and followed All Might out of the infirmary, closing the doors behind them. Once they were gone, Izuku looked down at Tsuki. "I'm sorry that I took your father's legacy from you."

Shouto looked slightly confused by that, but he stayed silent. Maybe Izuku would end up sharing everything with him after all. Tsuki just sighed and shook her head. "It's not fair to blame you when you didn't even know I existed. Besides, I do already have a pretty strong quirk, so I guess that should be enough for me. I should actually be thanking you. I- that was the first time since I left home that anyone's told me I could be a hero. But to be a vigilante, I'll probably have to leave so that my parents aren't obligated to try and protect me from the police here."

That was when Shouto decided to add to the conversation. "You don't necessarily have to be a vigilante. Between the two of us we've got three superhero parents. I'm sure some strings can be pulled to get you an interview with an agency. Your crime took place when you were a minor, which means that outside sources shouldn't be able to access those files. Maybe you could even get into Yuuei on recommendation. If being a hero is really the path you're set on, then there are possibilities available."

Tsuki smiled. "Thanks. Sorry, but I don't think I caught your name."

"Shouto Todoroki."

"I'm pretty sure your dad hates my father more than I do," Tsuki said with a soft snort. "Thank you for your help. And I do intend on being a hero. So I'm sorry for scaring you and threatening you both. And I'm sorry for controlling your body without asking for your permission." She glanced over at the infirmary doors. "I hope Dad isn't getting chewed out too badly. He only did what he thought was best for me."

There was a moment of silence, and then Izuku perched down on the edge of Tsuki's bed. "So what was it like growing up with All Might and Eraserhead as your parents?"

Shouto smiled fondly at the way Izuku was so eager to learn more about his idol, and Tsuki seemed grateful for the distraction from everything else. Izuku knew that everything from here wasn't going to be magically perfect, but he thought that it would be better, and he hoped that Tsuki would stick around. He was sure that that would make Aizawa and All Might much happier on a general basis. And their city would be better off for having yet another hero in it.


End file.
